Roses In December
by PeppermintNightmares
Summary: Set directly after the events of 2X16, minus Isobel showing up. Elena becomes a vampire, and remembers Damon confessing how he feels about her.    Yes, I suck at summaries. The cat's out of the bag. Hopefully the writing will be better.
1. Chapter 1

"What the hell were you thinking?" yelled Stefan. "You almost died, Elena!"

"Y-you think that I did this on _purpose?_" The indignation was very clear in her voice

"Of course I do. Why does that surprise you? It's all you've been able to talk about since you found out about the sacrifice. How your very existence is putting everyone in danger. Is it such a leap to think that maybe you tried to do something about it?"

"And that would be a bad thing? Stefan, every moment that I'm alive, the people that I care about are getting closer and closer to getting hurt by Klaus. Why shouldn't I want to save them?"

"You should… Of _course_ you should. But there have to be other ways. Ways that will keep _everybody_ safe. We've managed to get rid of Elijah, even Katherine's not being too much of a pain in the ass at the moment. So there's absolutely nothing to say that we can't kill Klaus. Damon's searching for the witch burial grounds, once we've found them, Bonnie will be strong enough to weaken Klaus and then he's dead." Stefan allowed himself a little smirk, as he visualised what he was going to do with the bastard. He opened his arms in a gesture which called Elena forward into his embrace and kissed the top of her head.

"At the moment" she mumbled, after a few seconds.

"What?" Stefan looked down at her, confused.

"Katherine isn't a problem _at the moment_" Elena clarified, causing Stefan to laugh.

"You worry way too much" he told her, hoping that he sounded like he believed his own words. "Elena, tell me honestly, did you crash your car on purpose, just now?"

Elena looked up at him, so he could see that she wasn't lying. "No Stefan. It was an accident. I didn't see the other car drive into my lane until it was too late. They didn't have their headlights on and it was pitch black." If she didn't know any better, she'd wonder if they were actually trying to kill her. But that was ridiculous. Why would somebody come after her _with a car_?

"Okay then, I believe you. But you have to be extra careful from now on. The blood I gave you should keep your unlucky self from minor injuries for a while though, at least".

"Ok" she said pulling away from Stefan and walking into the bathroom.

Meanwhile, down the hall, Jeremy was trying to get some clarification, himself. "Bonnie, you know how to kill Klaus? How?"

"Short version?" she asks, and Jeremy nods. "Well, I know that a few hundred years ago, one hundred witches were burned at the stake, somewhere near by. On it's own that information is very sad, but not very helpful. However, I read in Emily's grimoire, that when a witch dies like that, they leave a powerful mark upon that place… sort of residual magic. Now there were a hundred of them, so that's a lot of magic, just waiting for someone to come along and tap into it. So if we can find the site, I can channel the energy and use the spell that Dr Martin gave me, to kill Klaus… Or at least weaken him enough that he can be killed"

"That was the short version?" Jeremy asked with a grin.

"Shut up" Bonnie rolls her eyes, before stretching up to kiss her boyfriend.


	2. Chapter 2

**Early the next morning, everyone met at the boarding house for a "Klaus Update Conference". Bonnie filled everybody in on her plan to kill the Original. "Now, we have to find the site of the witch massacre" Bonnie announced.**

"I'm pretty sure I know how to find out where it is." Damon informed them.

"How?" Alaric asked.

"I can't say. The walls have ears" he glared at Katherine, as she walked down the stairs and into the parlour, where they had convened.

"Aww" she pouted "Mystery Incorporated are having a staff meeting and you didn't invite little ol' me. I'm hurt"

"Cute" Stefan interjected. "Now if you wouldn't mind - you know - going away, that'd be great. Thanks."

"Stefan, Stefan, Stefan… when will you just accept that I'm here to help? Besides, I already know where the burial grounds are."

"Is that a fact?" Stefan asked. Genuinely curious.

"You're lying" Elena piped up from somewhere behind Stefan.

"Simmer down children. Uncle Damon hasn't had his morning fix of O Neg' yet. Katherine, how would you know where it is?"

"Seeing as everyone's being so warm and friendly - probably because I saved Elena yesterday - I guess it won't hurt to divulge my secrets." She plopped herself unceremoniously down on the couch, and stretched herself out so that her legs were resting in Damon's lap. He humoured her, at least for the moment, and waited for her to continue. "Last night, after we ended the he-witch, I went over to his house to see what I could find. They have dozens of grimoires. I found the only Bennett book they had, which belonged to Jane Bennett; Emily's daughter. It's all in there."

"And where is the burial site?" Damon pressed.

"Ten miles north-east, right next to an old church called St Sebastian's"

"Are you sure? It seems strange that they'd bury witches on consecrated ground" asked Stefan.

Katherine shrugged. "That's what the book said. It's right over there if you wanna check." She pointed at the book at the top of the pile of Gilbert journals they'd been going though. Stefan picked it up and started reading through it. After a moment, he spoke.

"Yep, it's right on the edge of Mystic Falls. I remember, there did used to be a church around there, just off the Fell property" he grinned.

"Okay then" Damon said, standing up and almost knocking Katherine onto the floor. "Looks like we got a plan. Barbie, make yourself useful and go get some blood from downstairs. We need to juice up, just in case. Katherine, you're coming too, but I want you on your best behaviour."

"Aren't I always?" she says, trying for innocent, but falling way short.

Caroline was back with the blood already. She handed out the blood rations to Damon, Stefan and more reluctantly, Katherine, before going to open a bag for herself.

"By all means, I don't mind sharing my stash Caroline, but I hope you don't think you're tagging along" Damon announced, slurping down his blood.

"What? Why?"" she complained.

"Because someone has to stay here with Elena" he responded.

"No, I'm coming with you"

"Yeah right. Judgy, do you have everything you need?" Damon asked.

Bonnie ignored the insulting nickname. "Yeah"

"Alrighty then. Let's go." And with that, Damon, Bonnie, Katherine, Alaric and Jeremy all headed for the door. Stefan turned toward Elena and kissed her briefly. "Be safe."

"Me be safe? What's gonna happen to me in your house. Besides, Care's here. You be safe, ok?"

"I will" he kissed her again, until they were interrupted by Jeremy, who was back at the door, and clearing his throat.

"How come he gets to come with you, but I don't?"

Stefan doesn't answer, he just promises not to let anything bad happen to her brother, kisses her one final time and walks through the door.


	3. Chapter 3

"Well, this bites" Caroline pouted. "I _always_ get stuck with babysitting duty."

"Yeah. Thanks Care" Elena rolled her eyes at Caroline's usual lack of tact.

"Oh, no-no-no-no-no" she rushed to correct her blunder. "I didn't mean it like that, at all. You know I love hanging out with you, you're my best friend, Elena. It's just that I hardly ever get to do anything important, when it comes to this whole curse thing. It just sucks to feel useless, is all"

"Not to blow my own trumpet or anything, but 'keeping me safe' is very important to them. Damon gave you - what he thinks, is - a very important job to do" she blushed a little, before changing the subject. "So, you wanna watch a movie, or something?"

Caroline didn't fail to notice how Elena got flustered by the thought of Damon caring about her. "What's going on _there_?" She wondered, but decided to let it go - at least for the moment. "Sure" she replied. "Is there even a tv in the house?"

"In one of the spare bedrooms. Not too sure what we'll find, to watch though. The only DVDs I know of, are _boy-movies_" she made an overly-dramatic disgusted face.

"Ugh" Caroline agreed, making her way up the stairs to check the Salvatore's DVD collection, anyway. It didn't take her long to reappear, shaking her head. "Men!"

Laughing "I _did_ try to warn you"

"You did… Let's just run over to my place to grab something watchable, ok?"

"You go ahead" Elena offers, sitting on the sofa after grabbing Jane Bennett's grimoire from the table where Stefan put it. "I'll wait here."

"You sure you'll be okay?" Caroline asks. "I'm supposed to be keeping an eye on you."

Elena starts flipping through the spell book. "I'm a big girl, Caroline. What could possibly happen to me in the twenty minutes you'll be gone, anyway?"

Caroline hesitates, but eventually grabs her keys from her purse, ready to leave. "If you're sure…"

"I'll be fine Care'. Go"

"Ok, I got my cell, so if anything hinky happens… you know the drill" Caroline reminded her, before heading for the door.

"Hey, Caroline?"

Pausing at the open door "Yeah?"

"Not Twilight again, okay?"

Caroline just smirked and walked out of the door..

Five minutes later, Elena heard a noise coming from upstairs. Hesitantly she got up, starting to inch toward the stairs. "C-Caroline? Is that you?"


	4. Chapter 4

**Chapter note: Teeny tiny guilt-motivated update. Sorry it's so short, but I'm super busy with RL at the minute, so I figured that you'd rather this, than nothing. Am I right? Of course I'm right =)**

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_Five minutes later, Elena heard a noise coming from upstairs. Hesitantly she got up, starting to inch toward the stairs. "C-Caroline? Is that you?"_

* * *

"Sorry to disappoint" said a man, now suddenly standing right in front of Elena. He was tall and fair-haired, with a thick scar running from his right eyebrow, almost to the corner of his mouth. He was sporting a cruel smirk.

Elena tried to back away. "Who are you? What do you want?"

"Me? I don't want anything" he said, smiling almost sweetly. It was as unnerving as - if not more so than - the smirk. "I want everything to stay exactly as it is. Which, unfortunately for you, involves you dying. So sorry about that"

"What? What are you talking about? Who_ are_ you" she repeated.

"My name's Thomas. I'm an old… friend of the Original, Klaus" he sneered as he said the name. "And I'm afraid I can't allow him to use you to break the curse… For what it's worth, I truly wish I didn't have to kill you… Not so_ quickly_ anyway. You seem like you'd be a lot of fun to… play with."

"You don't have to kill me at _all_" Elena tells him, speaking rapidly, completely terrified. "My friends, they're working on a way to kill Klaus, right now"

"Yes… Yes, I've been listening, all morning, waiting for them to leave" he says, stepping closer to her. "But I can't take any chances. It just wouldn't make good business sense, you _understand_, I'm sure"

She didn't understand though. Not at all. "Why don't you want Klaus to break the curse? What's it to you?"

He laughed at that. "You know what curiosity did to the cat, don't you?" and with that, he just went ahead and snapped Elena's neck, before looking down at his handy work. "It was a pleasure to meet you, miss Gilbert. Don't get up, I'll see myself out." With that, he simply stepped over her body, calmly sauntered across the parlour and walked out of the front door.

**Chapter end note: Again, I apologise for the length of this chapter. It was the best I could do, honest. Please review ect... You know the drill. Thanks guys!**


	5. Chapter 5

**Chapter note - Hey guys. Here's another short update. Once again, I apologise for the length, but the good news is, I seem to be able update more (word count wise) with several shorter chapters, instead of one slightly larger one, so - win!**

**Also, I would just like to publically address something that I've had several PMs about. This fic is set after 2X16. Anything that happened in the show _before _that, happened in this fic. Anything that happened after that (including Isobel showing up at the end of 2X16) doesn't count - Although some of the more obvious plot points that are necessary for the fic, have actually come about in a later episode. Not the point though.**

**The point I'm trying to make - in a very rambly way - is that the Salvatores haven't signed the boarding house over to Elena, so Thomas didn't need inviting in, to murder her.**

**So, that is all. Enjoy the chapter.**

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"Elena, I'm back. Sorry I took so - Oh my God! Elena! Elena!" Caroline yelled, running over, checking her friend's pulse and not finding one. "Oh God. No…. No." She was just trying to shake herself out of it, at least long enough to call Stefan, when she heard a gasp. "Elena?" hugging her tight. "I thought you were dead! You _were_ dead! What happened?"

Pulling away and blinking up at her, confusedly. "Caroline?"

"Yeah. I'm here. Everything's okay now. You're safe. Do you remember what _happened_?"

"Uh… Yeah. After you left, a man came… A vampire. He killed me…" Panic started to set in. "Care' I'm a _vampire_!"

Caroline shook her head, refusing to believe it. "No, Elena you have to have a vampire's blood in your system when you die, to become one. I don't know how you're alive, but that's not it… Are you wearing Jeremy's ring?" she asked, looking down and checking Elena's empty hands. "Then how…"

Elena sat up. "Stefan fed me some of his blood, last night. I'd gotten hurt in a car accident… Now I'm a vampire… or at least _going_ to be one." she explained, trying to sound calm, and matter-of-fact about the whole thing.

Caroline was stunned. "Wow… Um, I guess one of us should call Stefan…"

Elena shook her head. "Stefan's got a job to do, Caroline. He doesn't need to be worrying about me right now. What's done, is done, besides, they shouldn't be too long, anyway."

Caroline wasn't sure, but Elena seemed adamant, so she just shrugged. "Okay. How do you feel? You hungry?"

Caroline had barely finished asking the question, before Elena responded. "Starving"

Knowing that to be true, she picked up the almost full bag of blood from earlier. She was about to hand it over to Elena, when something made her hesitate. "Elena… Are you _sure_ you want to do this?" Elena just looked at her as if she was nuts, so she continued. "I mean, there's no way I want you to die, but I can tell you, this _life_ - if that's what you want to call it - It's not all that great. Constantly having to fight what you are, keeping secrets, it can get lonely. You should be sure you want that"

"Caroline. In case you haven't noticed, I've been keeping secrets about this whole thing, for a while now. Longer than you have, so that's irrelevant. As for the loneliness, I'm in love with a vampire… The 'being a monster' thing… I can deal. If I can't, I'll just go sunbathe" Elena knew the joke was in poor taste, but she couldn't help herself. "So may I have the blood please?"

Caroline hesitated again, but ultimately handed Elena the bag. "Ok". Elena started to drink the blood, smiling, as relief spread through her body.

Damon chose that moment to walk through the door. "Hello ladi - What the hell, Elena?"

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**Author's note - Thanks for reading. Please review =)**


	6. Chapter 6

**Author's note - Hey guys. So, as per custom when it comes to this thing, I must begin with about 1075 appologies. The first one is that I have been a total procrastinator. I was having some trouble with writer's block when I first started trying to write this chaper and then just couldn't find the motivation to try again. So I'm sorry about that. The second, is that this is the shortest chapter to date. I know, I fail, so sorry about that too. Also, this chapter was finally dragged out on my tiny, frazzled little brain because I'm sick, severely sleep deprived and feeling guilty about not updating sooner, so it's probably all kinds of messy. Also, as always, totally unbetaed so... there you have it. I do hope you enjoy it regardless. Let me know what you think =)**

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Damon snatched the bag from Elena's grip. "Please tell me that your new found affinity for the taste of blood, is purely psychological and we can just get you therapy and be done with it?"

Elena turned to look at him, revealing her darkened, bloodshot eyes and the pronounced veins underneath them, answering the question without words.

"What the hell _happened_?" Damon asked, addressing Caroline. "I thought you were watching her!"

"Damon, calm down" Elena virtually ordered him, her pseudo-calmness not wavering. "It wasn't her fault. She only left for a little while. How was she to know that some psycho, with a grudge against Klaus was waiting to get me alone, to kill me?"

"She _wasn't"_ he replied, talking to Elena, but not removing his glare from Caroline. "But the irresponsible little idiot _did_ know she was supposed to be keeping you from getting hurt. Clearly she can't do anything right." Caroline just stood there, looking sufficiently guilty, so he repositioned his gaze to Elena's face. "Who was it? Who did this to you?"

"He said his name was Thomas. He really didn't want Klaus to break the curse, so he killed me… Just like _that_" She snapped her fingers, scowling at the wall.

"So… How'd this" he gestured at Elena with his hand "happen?"

"I had a car accident last night. Stefan had to give me some of his blood, so when I… died, Voilà." Damon goes quiet, trying to take it all in. "You can't tell anyone though, Damon. Especially not Stefan."

"Uh-huh…"

"Damon, I'm _serious_. He's got enough to deal with. He doesn't need to know right away." Elena snapped.

Before he had a chance to respond Jeremy appeared at the door, carrying an unconscious Bonnie. "Uh guys?"

Elena rushed to clear the couch of the journals she had strewn all over it. Jeremy set her down on it and Elena was about to go check on Bonnie when Damon stopped her by grabbing her arm. "That's not really a gangbuster idea, Elena."

Jeremy turned toward them. "Why?"

"Your big sister's a creature of the night now, Jeremy" Damon blurted out. "She could _hurt_ someone"

Elena looked offended. "I would never…"

"Yes, Elena, you would. I know you wouldn't _want_ to, but it's in your nature now. You shouldn't be around people until you've gotten a handle on being a vampire."

"What?" a voice came from the doorway.

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**Author's note: Thanks for reading. I hope you liked it. Please review =) Love you guys xxx **


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